LONG BEACH, Calif. - UC San Diego held leads in all three frames, with 28 tie scores generated in the match, only to fall to No. 11 Long Beach State, 3-0, in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) men's volleyball opener for both sides at the Walter Pyramid on Wednesday night. Set scores were 25-21, 25-20 and 25-15.
With the defeat, UCSD drops to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the MPSF. Long Beach State remains unbeaten at 4-0 overall and 1-0 in league play. It was a sixth consecutive win in the series for the 49ers, with the last four each coming in straight sets.
The Tritons settled on a .229 attack percentage for the match after hitting over .300 in the first two games, at .321 and .314, respectively. Long Beach State hit .396 and out-blocked UCSD, 8.5-2.0.
Sophomore middle blocker Shayne Beamer finished in double-figure kills for the second straight contest, with 10. Freshman opposite Tanner Syftestad added eight, falling just shy of making it three double-digit efforts in three matches to begin his UCSD career. Freshman libero Tyler Bird shared the match high with 13 digs.
Ian Colbert hit at a .353 clip (7-1-17) for seven kills to go along with six digs. Redshirt freshman setter José Carlos Martinez had 30 assists, four digs, a block assist, and his first collegiate kill.
Early in the first, UCSD took a 6-4 lead after four straight points, with two Syftestad kills around a pair of 49er errors. Three points in a row later gave LBSU a 16-13 edge, with two kills coming from John La Rusch, as the Tritons took the first timeout of the night. A run of three straight from UCSD, with kills by Mathew Schnitzer and Colbert around a Taylor Gregory attack error, knotted the score back up at 17-17 as the Beach called for time. Long Beach State broke a 13th and final deadlock of 19-19 with three consecutive points to force UCSD's final timeout, and went on to the 25-21 win. The sides had four service errors apiece in the first.
The second game was also tightly contested, until the 10-10 mark when the Beach produced a 4-0 stretch to gain control. The Tritons could only get back to within two from there, at 19-17 and 21-19, before LBSU earned the set victory, 25-20. UCSD limited itself to just a single service error in the second.
A stuff block by Schnitzer and Syftestad on a La Rusch attack levelled the third game at 4-4, before a pair of Schnitzer kills gave the Tritons their first leads at 5-4 and 7-6. With UCSD nursing a 9-7 advantage, La Rusch brought the Beach back with a kill and back-to-back service aces to regain a 10-9 edge. Tied at 12-12 moments later, a 4-0 49er stretch gave the hosts a 16-12 cushion, and they cruised the rest of the way.
For LBSU, Cody Martin (14), Dan Glamack (13) and La Rusch (10) all wound up with double-figure kills. Libero Ryan Windisch got to 13 digs. Matt Butler had 32 assists, six digs, two kills and four total blocks as the 49er setter.
UCSD concludes its season-long four-match road stretch to begin 2015 at The Matadome in Northridge this Friday night, Jan. 16, facing No. 15 CSUN at 7 p.m.
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